“That doesn’t make sense. Y’all moved away. You moved to New York.”
“I thought it would get better. I thought he would forget about you,” he said through gritted teeth. “I’d been trying to get him to move for months, but he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to leave you behind. He didn’t want to stop putting his dick in you every month. He wanted you more than he ever wanted me.” Chris’s voice shook at the end, trembling with a thousand pent-up emotions.
“But you wouldn’t have done this to me. You didn’t kill Mandi. You wouldn’t do those things.” Saying it out loud made me feel better. It didn’t matter that he was pointing a gun at Vic, Chris couldn’t have done those things. He wouldn’t have.
He smiled, still staring at Vic. “Oh, but I did.” And then suddenly he was moving, lunging to where I had fallen on the floor. I tried to move, but he wrapped his arms around me from behind and pressed the gun to my temple. I opened my mouth to scream, but he clamped his free hand over it. “If you scream I’m going to blow your fucking head off. Same goes for you, Victor. You scream and she’s dead. And the men outside will kill both of us. You know that, right? You know Cole has told them to fuck us up at the first hint of Jewel’s discomfort. They burst in here, you’re the first one to die, you know that, right?”
Vic had taken a step toward us, but was frozen, his hands still held out in front of him. Terror squeezed at my insides, pressing at the backs of my eyes until I was certain they were bugging out of my head. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want this to be the end, on the floor of my apartment with Cole gone.
“But you couldn’t have.” The words escaped from my lips. I couldn’t fathom it. I couldn’t picture Chris in that motel room with a knife. I couldn’t picture him paying off Jay, giving him the money to kill me.
“Shut the fuck up.” He dug the gun into my temple. “And move the couch.” I felt him move his head, gesturing toward the door. “Push it against the door.”
“But—”
“Do it. Now.”
“It won’t keep them from getting in.” Vic still stood in the same place, not moving.
“No. It won’t. But if you want your pretty little love toy to live, you’ll move the fucking couch against the door,” Chris hissed.
Vic walked slowly to the couch and slid it until it was pressed up against the front door. “Now, sit down, Vic. Have a seat on the floor across from us. Go on.”
“Chris—”
“Shut the fuck up and sit down.”
Vic did as he was told, lowering his body.
“Good, was that so hard?”
I could smell Chris’s sweat, the thick odor seemed to surround me.
“Now I’m going to tell you both a story. A story you need to hear.”
“Please.” The word escaped my lips.
He jammed the gun harder against my temple and pressed his lips against my ear. “If you say one more thing, I’m going to blow your head off, and then you’ll never know how I ruined your whole fucking life.”
A shaky burst of air escaped my lungs.
“Do you understand?” I gave a slight nod. “Good. Now I’m sure you want to know how and why, don’t you? I bet you both want to know.” I could feel him smile against the side of my head. “You’re all so fucking stupid you never would have figured it out. I’ve been in this apartment with guards surrounding me for my protection, when I’m the one who’s been fucking everyone over.”
“Things slip right under our noses and we never notice until it’s too late.” Chris’s words from the night I found out about Cole’s past popped into my head. I didn’t even realize what he was saying.
“I was the one who paid Jay Cooley to cut your pretty little neck. He was supposed to get the job done. He was supposed to do a damn good job of butchering this sexy little physique you have.” He ran his free hand down my chest and squeezed one of my tits until pain throbbed under my skin and I squirmed. “I even told him to cut out these implants and bring them to me as a souvenir.” He squeezed harder and I tried to twist away.
“Fuck, Chris, stop! You’re hurting her,” Vic pleaded.
“He fucked up,” Chris said, as if Vic had never spoken, though he did loosen his grip. “He was sloppy and he did a stupid-ass shitty job. Couldn’t even cut your throat right.” He snorted. “He wasn’t much better in bed, either. Two thrusts and his little cock was blowing its load.” He paused. “Are you surprised, Vic? Did you think you were the only one who fucked around? You were lucky, though. You didn’t have to watch him fuck me, the way I had to watch you fuck Jewel over and over and over.
“I knew I should have done the job myself, but at that point I was scared, like a stupid little bitch. I had someone else do my dirty work. I really lucked out that he worked where your little asshole boyfriend used to work. I didn’t actually plan that part, but clearly, I’m just a fucking genius even in times when I don’t know it. Of course, all of you made it easy because you’re so fucking stupid.”
He ran his hand up and down my chest, over my breasts, and I fought the urge to jerk out of his grasp. I’m going to be okay. It’s going to be fine. I’m going to get out of this. I just need the best opportunity.
“So when he fucked shit up, I went to see you in the hospital, but Cole had his stupid-ass guards everywhere and there was nothing I could do to you.”
“Your mom wasn’t sick? You said that’s why you were here in Dallas, to see her.” Vic’s voice trembled as he gripped his knees tightly.
Chris threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh. “No. My mom died a long time ago. The stupid, drunk bitch that she was. That’s why I never wanted you to meet her.”
“The day you came to visit me in the hospital, you were going to kill me?” He didn’t want me to ask questions, but I couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out of my mouth. I had been so thrilled to see him. He had brought light to the dreary place I had fallen into.
“Yes. You have no idea how good it felt to stare at you and see how broken and lost you were. I soaked it all in, wanting to drown in it.” He leaned in and breathed in deeply against my hair. “It’s like your fear. I can taste it now. It’s so sweet, so sweet it’s almost bitter.”
“So…you came here just to kill me.”
“Right again. You’re on a roll. Vic missed you. He wanted to come home. I told him we didn’t have the money and I made him stay. I came here to take care of you. But it didn’t go as planned. So, I had to take things into my own hands. But then Cole was there, with his fucking guards all the damn time.”
“But you texted me…from a number with his brother’s name while I was in New Orleans. How?” He hadn’t been opposed to my last question. In fact, I could tell he liked it; he relished in the chance to brag. That didn’t help calm my fear. My heart raced and my shirt was wet, sticky from my own sweat now.
He chuckled. “I can’t reveal everything, but let’s just say Jay wasn’t the only person I fucked to get what I wanted.”
“Who?”
“None of your fucking business. That’s who. But anyway, you came home and then, like some sort of miracle you ditched Cole’s men and gave me a chance. Even though y’all tried to lose me, I was still on your tail. And it was so easy, I just had to hit Cole over the head and then slip in the motel with his key. I was really gonna fuck you up this time.” He rubbed his fingers against my scar and I fought the urge to scream. “But you wouldn’t wake up. It was like you were in a dead sleep. I shook you. I wanted you to see my fucking face. I wanted you to stare into my eyes while I butchered you.” He sneered. “But then that other bitch woke up first. I was just going to knock her out, but she put up too much of a fight and had to be put down.” He chuckled darkly. “She begged for her life, you know. She told me I would lose. Does it look like I’m losing?” His voice was high-pitched in excitement. “I got a little bit carried away and by the time I was done, I got scared someone heard the commotion, or that Cole would get up and find me. I
didn’t want either of those things. I also didn’t just want you dead. I wanted to revel in your death. I wanted you to see why you had to die.” He clawed at my neck, his blunt fingernails digging into my throat while the gun still pressed hard into my temple.
“The message on the wall was a last minute thing, more for fun than anything else.”
“The message…” You did this. Cole is next. Stay away from him. “Him,” I said the word out loud. “You didn’t mean Cole. You meant Vic. Cole is next. Stay away from Victor. That’s what you meant.” I couldn’t believe I had missed it this whole time; I had just assumed the him was Cole.
“Finally, someone gets it!”
“But I wasn’t around him, Chris. That doesn’t make sense. At that point I hadn’t seen Vic in months.”
“But you called him, didn’t you?” He leaned in close, pressing his mouth right against my ear. His upper lip was sweaty and the liquid smeared across my skin. “Every fucking chance you got, you were on the phone with him, practically sucking his dick from hundreds of miles away.”
“The phone…” And then it hit me. “Every time I talked to him on the phone, I got a text from you, or something bad happened, especially after I was attacked.” My mind raced. “When I was in New Orleans, Vic texted me that night and told me he missed me. And then I got the text from the unknown number. And then at the motel, I talked to Vic on the phone and just hours later, you killed Mandi.”
“Bingo. Bingo! I would clap for you if I wasn’t holding a gun to your head. What do you think about all this, Victor, baby. You’re being awfully quiet.”
Victor was still gripping his knees, his gaze fixed on us. “You know I love you,” he said to Chris.
“Oh, please! Don’t make me laugh, I just heard you tell Jewel how fucking much you love her, and how I don’t matter, so don’t even try to say otherwise. I’m the one holding the gun!” And, as if to emphasize the point, he smacked the barrel against the side of my head. Not hard enough to knock me out, but hard enough that I cried out in pain.
“What about Kevin?” I shoved the question out there, desperate to make Chris get back to his story. When he was talking to me, he wasn’t trying to injure me or prove a point to Vic; instead he was more interested in sharing his triumphs, and that was where I wanted him to be. Cole would come back soon. He had to. Someone would come back, one of the guards would come in. Something, anything would happen. It had to. I didn’t want to think of the consequences otherwise.
“Oh, Kevin.” He chuckled. “He was one fucked-up piece of shit. I ran into him when I went to talk to Jay, and it occurred to me how perfect he fit into my plan. If I killed you, and then he went missing, that would point to him. And then I could go back to my life with Victor and we could live happily ever after. But Kevin complicated things, because he didn’t want to fuck me. In fact, he knew who I was, since he’d stalked you for a little while when we all moved in together.
“I told him all the ways I would suck his cock, and he wasn’t even interested.” Chris shifted a little, forcing my body to turn a bit. “He sucked my cock instead, by force of course. And I fucked him a few times.” I sucked in a labored breath as tears burst from my eyes. “What? Does that make you sad, little Jewel? Does it hurt your feelings that the man who beat the shit out of you every day was raped over and over before I stabbed him to death?” He chuckled darkly. “I figured, if anything, you would thank me for that at least.”
The tears came faster and I couldn’t control them or my labored breathing. Kevin’s face popped into my head. He was a bad guy, he’d done horrible things to me, but I had loved him once in spite of his flaws. We’d had good moments, times where he’d tickled me until I was crying from laughing so hard. Moments when he took my hand in his and told me he loved me. Those were the little moments that had made me stay as long as I did. Moments I would never forget, even if they were entwined with all the horrible things. A sick feeling came next, sweeping through my gut, making me want to vomit.
He’s dead. He’s actually dead, and Chris raped him before he murdered him. It was real. I guess I hadn’t really processed the truth of it when Randy had called. But now it was bitterly real, and I could see it in my mind’s eye. I could hear Kevin begging, even if it wasn’t the real thing; my mind conjured images I’d never wanted to think of. And it’s all my fault.
“What the hell is wrong with you? The guy I loved wouldn’t have done this shit,” Vic said, his face covered in a mask of horror.
“The guy you fell in love with is gone. You killed him. You murdered me every time you looked at Jewel, every time you touched her, every time you smiled at her and not at me. You stabbed me with a knife until I was nothing but the bloody heap I am now.” He squeezed my shoulder hard.
“What about the account. The one you texted me and Cole from?” I squeaked.
He released his grip and I could tell he was looking down at me, even though I couldn’t see him. “Oh, the account, that was just for fun. I knew Cole would try to track the number, so I made a new account and used his brother’s name, since he was convicted of murdering him and all.”
“You know you can’t hurt her,” Vic said. “You know the minute you pull that trigger about ten men are going to come in here and blow your head off, right? You know you’re never leaving this room ever again, at least not alive.”
My mouth dropped open, and I tried to glare at Vic to make him shut up. Goading the guy with the gun wasn’t the brightest thing to do. What we needed was time. We needed fucking time, and threatening him was the last thing that was going to help us.
“Oh, I know.” Chris spoke with such blank certainty that the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. “But neither are you. Jewel isn’t either. We’re all gonna die. At first I thought I could kill her, and then you would forget about her. But the longer this went on, the more I realized you were beyond saving. She’d already poisoned you and there was no fixing it. So, that’s fine, but in the next life, you’re going to be mine. I’m going to find you and we’re going to be together. You and I.”
“You’re talking crazy, Chris!” Vic leaned forward, gripping his knees.
“Meow.” Weasley drew my attention, coming up next to Vic.
“Maybe I should kill your kitty first. What do you think, Jewel?”
“No!”
“Shut up,” Chris growled against my ear.
“No. Please. Don’t. Just don’t.”
He chuckled. “Hmmm. I’ll have to think about it.”
“Don’t do this, Chris, please,” Vic said.
“You get to watch her die, the woman you think you love. You’re gonna watch her blood coat the floor of this room. We’re gonna bathe in it, you and I. And then you’re next. And then me. And then we’ll really be together, Victor.”
“If I die, who’s to say I won’t be in the next life, too?” I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, the noise thundering, but I had to do something to stall him. Stall. Stall. Stall. We couldn’t die. We just couldn’t.
“Then I’ll kill you again. Whatever it fucking takes for us to be together.”
There was a loud boom that made us all jump. For a split second I thought it was the gun going off, but it was really the front door slamming into the side of the couch as someone busted it open. Randy’s visage was revealed through the half-open door.
“Drop the gun!” he shouted, pointing his gun at Chris.
“Don’t come in here. You come in, I fucking blow her head off!” Chris shouted. He was shaking, the gun knocking against my skull.
Or is it me that’s shaking? I couldn’t tell.
Randy paused and I could see someone else beside him, another guard. “Just put the gun down, Chris. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
“It’s the only way.”
Tears ran down Vic’s cheeks. He was standing now, though he hadn’t moved toward us. He held out his hands as if he wanted me to come to him, as if the action alone would make Chris relea
se me. “You don’t have to do this, Chris, please.”
“Yes, I do.” Chris shifted his hand on the gun and I knew what was coming. He was going to pull the trigger. And I was going to die.
TWENTY-TWO
Cole.
I was running. My feet were carrying me as fast as I could go, but it wasn’t fast enough. I was still blocks from Julia’s apartment and I was drawing attention now. People were looking at me, rolling down their windows and snapping pictures. It made sense. How often did people see a half-naked man covered in blood running through Downtown Dallas?
But I didn’t care about that, about what they thought, about the police that would surely be called.
I have to get to her. Not much time.
I had to get to Julia and the downtown traffic jam wouldn’t keep me from her. I had to save her. Red had covered my vision, just as it had covered my body. I’d discarded my shirt in the limo before I jumped out, leaving it inside with Elaine and my mother. Both of whom were completely fine and intact. There wasn’t a hair out of place on my mother’s head like Leon had led me to believe. It was why he no longer had his head. I’d blown it off when I’d found out the truth.
The pavement seemed to move slowly beneath my feet even though I was running with everything I had. How could I have been so stupid to just leave her there with them?
I knew the truth now. The truth was so overwhelmingly obvious it made me sick that I hadn’t realized it before. I had fallen for a trap and left Julia there, in the hands of the man who wanted her dead.
Chris thought he was smart, and he was. He fucking was, but Leon wasn’t. I should have paid more attention. I should have noticed he had been acting weird lately, but I hadn’t. As usual, my whole life was immersed in everything that had to do with Julia.
Leon had forced my mom into the basement at my house in Summerville, where she and Elaine had been staying. He called me, claiming she’d been kidnapped and that he didn’t know where she was. He thought his plan was foolproof since he did everything from inside the house, where the cameras couldn’t catch him.
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